July 3, 2015

Editorial Opinion, Bloomberg

President Barack Obama's announcement Wednesday that the U.S. will restore diplomatic relations with Cuba and reopen an embassy in Havana amounts to "unconditional surrender," opponents say. Just look at the way the Castro regime continues to crack down on dissidents.

They have it backward. Normal diplomatic relations are not some kind of reward to Cuba for making progress; the way to get Cuba to change is to restore normal diplomatic relations. The Obama administration has two pieces of evidence in its favor.

First is the dismal, half-century failure of the U.S. embargo to dislodge the Castros and restore freedom to the Cuban people. Instead, it has merely locked the island in poverty while estranging the U.S. both from the hemisphere and the international community...